Do people really eat meat for every meal?

[CurlewKate]

There seems to be a post every day about the difficulties of catering for a vegetarian guest. I'm an omnivore and I do love meat, but probably only eat it 3-sometimes 4 times a week. And if a guest was a vegetarian I would have no trouble cooking a nice meal without meat-either a family staple or something posher. So do people really eat meat for every meal? And if so-why? Apart from anything else, meat costs a fortune!

We don't eat meat for breakfast or lunch generally but have meat for dinner every day. After a vegetarian breakfast and lunch I want meat for dinner.

We don't find buying meat hugely expensive - but we never buy lamb and very rarely buy beef. We mostly eat chicken thighs or pork shoulder steaks. Roast at the weekend chicken/pork and that does us 2 days.

so Having lean chicken or turkey is bad for you? Give over.

@BlazingWorld those vegetables would make a lovely mild curry if you felt inclined!

Every meal no. Every dinner yes

I don’t get this. DS, DD and her partner eat meat and DH and I are vegetarian, so I’ve always cooked at least two variations of our evening meal, if not three as I’m really picky.

I make the same ‘base’ meal for everyone, say curry, and then cook chicken in one pan and tofu or Quorn in another. Divide the sauce between the two pans and it’s done.

People on here get so worked up about cooking for vegetarians, but most of eat the same as everyone else, just without meat.

I'd say we do more often than not, although less that it used to.

Lunches more mixed - could be a soup for example or a sandwich (usually tuna or a hot roast beef/chicken for me, DH will have either tuna or cheese), beans on toast or a jacket potato (which could have a veggie or non-veggie topping - chilli con carne, veggie chilli, beans and cheese etc).

Evening meals are more likely to contain meat but could be small quantities like a risotto or fried rice with one chicken breast between the three of us (DH, me and 4 yr old DD). Plenty of veggie dishes like veggie pasta sauce with halloumi, mixed bean chilli, paneer curry, halloumi fajitas... Sometimes will also be a meat bolognese or chilli, chicken curry, chicken fajitas sausages, tuna pasta bake, a roast etc where the meat is a more substantial part.

I'll often use small amounts of something like chorizo to add flavour to a rice or pasta dish that doesn't have any other form of meat or fish though.

At a guess I'd say we eat veggie evening meals 1-2 times a week and meat/fish the rest of the time.

We used to eat more omelettes and things like that for lunches but recently eggs have started to disagree with me unless they're hard boiled, which is a shame.

I think my issue with catering for someone vegetarian is most of my veggie dishes feel very "quick tea" like and not as "good" as some of my meat of fish based dishes so I'd feel like I needed to make more of an effort. The halloumi fajitas have always gone down a storm though and they're great if you have a mixed veggie/meat eating audience as you can do a tray with halloumi and a tray with chicken. Also, having said that my garlic bread is fairly universally celebrated so I can get away with serving almost anything with it and guests are usually happy!

That sounds like a convenient way of making a basic curry for an ordinary family meal. But it’s not how curry should be made and if I wanted to make a dinner party curry which would wow guests, it’s not a recipe I’d use. Hence why people often struggle to cook for vegetarian guests - not because they never cook without meat, but because they’re less practiced than they are with meat at doing the fancier dishes rather than the weekday family dinner basics.

Yes we eat meat for every dinner, and lunch is usually sandwiches with chicken or ham slices or tuna mayo. No meat at breakfast (but often eggs). My parents always cooked dinners including meat too (and they weren't on a high income but were clever about buying meat in bulk from butchers etc). I wouldn't mind some veggie meals but my DH and DS are fussier so I just stick with it. We eat a lot of chicken and not much beef or lamb. Our food costs are high but we have the budget for it.

I agree that in some ways it seems weird that people are so baffled at what to cook for a vegetarian, since there are so many normal, everyday meals that don't contain meat. But I suppose that for most meat-eaters, all their go-to nice main course dishes when cooking for guests are probably meat-based. Whereas most of the non-meat dishes they might regularly eat are a bit basic for entertaining.

Because that's not really how most people would cook a meat (or veg) curry. The meat needs to marinade first. And then ideally slow cooked with the spices and sauce so that it becomes really tender as well as absorbing the flavours in the sauce, as well as flavouring the sauce with meat juices. What you're doing is serving up meat with curry sauce, which is absolutely not the same as a meat curry or casserole.

Ye,we eat meat every day,but not every meal. I cook from scratch mostly using a slow cooker,and rarely buy pre made meals. Our shopping bill is around £100 a week for 4 adults,2 cats and 1 dog.

Meat and/or fish usually twice per day, sometimes 3.
Certainly protein of some sort at every meal.

And the opposite for me, so if I host meat eaters, I buy in some meat😀

Meat or fish three days a week and the rest vegetarian. Partly because it’s getting expensive but partly because early onset bowel cancer runs in my family so I ration it for me, and don’t eat processed meat like burgers or bacon. If I have it in a sandwich it’s always left over from a roast.

@ElevenSeven curious as to why you wouldn’t serve a veggie curry to visitors - just as tasty as a meat one. I make both, and I’d serve either to anyone.

I wouldn’t serve curry full stop.

I don't know anyone who does eat meat every day! Not one.

I don't, as I am pescatarian - but DH only eats meat once or twice a week, and then it's only pepperoni or chicken on a pizza or in a chicken salad.
I don't do meat/beef joints/pork joints etc, as I don't eat it, so I'm not sitting there cooking something I am not going to eat! Also, I won't cook it anyway as I don't eat it for a reason!

DC don't eat any meat at all, and neither do several of my friends.

"I don’t get this. DS, DD and her partner eat meat and DH and I are vegetarian, so I’ve always cooked at least two variations of our evening meal, if not three as I’m really picky."

I think this is the sort of thing that baffles me. Why not just cook vegetarian for everyone? I wouldn't cook two seperate meals on a daily basis!

Biased as a vegan, but meat is in no way good for the environment, free range or not!

Exactly. If you're a good cook and a meat eater you don't just serve meat WITH sauce...the whole dish is made so the meat flavours it and all the delicious juices cook with it yummmmmmmmmmm

Yeah you're biased. There's nothing wrong with meat. Regenerative farming IS good for the environment. You're talking out your arse.... no offence.

Supplementary then - why not?
Do you only do deeply formal entertaining? Never a relaxed evening with friends or family?
I’m not suggesting you are doing anything wrong - just interested!

My DP eats meat ( I don't) he only has meat for a couple of meals a week, perhaps a cooked breakfast at the weekend with bacon or a sausage and fish or lamb once during the week for dinner.

We eat meat for a lot of meals mainly for protein. We can’t have most legumes or eggs and can only have so much fish.

Unless you grow most of your food, I guarantee you the intense farmed crops you eat do more damage to the environment than my free change chops from Lincolnshire.